July 28, 2009

Something about the way Shatner peaks at "north" had me not laughing — as intended — but thinking about Glenn Gould's "The Idea of North." I can't find the audio on line, but it's here, along with 2 other things, on a CD that I have listened to many times and highly recommend.

Here's 10 minutes of Gould talking about it:

"The Idea of North" is also one of the "short films" in "32 Short Films About Glenn Gould," which, you may have noticed, has always been listed in my Blogger profile as one of my favorite films.

Here's the scene in the movie where Gould — who puts ketchup on his scrambled eggs — is getting the inspiration to do sound montages:

64 comments:

Now Conan should turn it around and invite Palin to come on his show and read the first stanza of "Howl" in the same manner in which she gave her speech -- same outdoorsy backdrop, same enormous wind-guarding microphone.

Conan's right -- I think that section of Palin's speech was supposed to be a "spontaneous poem," the kind the character in "Waitress" would invent to impress his girlfriend.

Now Ann, obviously I am not saying you are a hillbilly. You are Miss Jane Hathaway from the bank trying to keep the Alt house Hillbillies fed, fat and happy. After all, you need all twelve of them to post twenty times a day, otherwise the bank will fail!

Now, if Glenn Gould is the sweet lullaby that keeps the Althouse Hillbillies snoozing on the porch then I will take back my first post to this tread.

“Listen, people are always saying, ‘Rickey says Rickey.’ But it’s been blown way out of proportion. People might catch me, when they know I’m ticked off, saying, ‘Rickey, what the heck are you doing, Rickey?’ They say, ‘Darn, Rickey, what are you saying Rickey for? Why don’t you just say, ‘I?’ But I never did. I always said, ‘Rickey,’ and it became something for people to joke about.”

"He even called Sarah Palin, quote, 'a kind of genius.' Can we trust someone who thinks a book-burning, rape-kit denying, wolf-shooting politician like Sarah Palin is a genius? Send Sarah Palin a message -- vote no on Garage Mahal!"

Interesting that the Liberals never make fun of Mitt Romney. No doubt he's the MSM's new "favorite Republican" now that McCain lost.

We thougt he was the joke. I mean the guy wanted to "double down on Gitmo" and his idea of relating at a MLK parade was to robotically wonder "Who let the dogs out?". He's like a TV caricature that we've seen before and been laughing at since the 70's. Palin on the other hand provides new and exciting forms of comic inspiration. You just need to lazily recycle jokes about Louis Winthorpe the III to laugh at Romney.

Why do you point out that Glenn Gould put ketchup on his scrambled eggs, as if that were a particularly eccentric preference. Although I would never consider putting ketchup on my eggs, I see many people who do, and in NYC diners, the waiters often will ask if the diner would like ketchup served with the eggs.

Glen Gould was brilliant but insane. He thought Mozart was a lousy composer. Only someone who is crazy could think that.

"Now I maybe might disagree with some of Mitt Romney's relatively new, more conservative positions, I do find him to be an honorable Republican in the mode of Bob Dole and Howard Baker."

Let me translate. "I like Mitt Romney because he is a loser who will either lose an election or if he wins roll over and let me and others like me gang rape the entire country in the name of bi-partisianship."

"The only prayer Republicans have is to nominate a centerist northeasterner like Romney. If they select Palin, the Republicans will be reduced to minority party status for the next generation."

(Hillbill) L.E. Lee, you libs are your own worst enemy. I'd agree with you except that libs like you can't seem to shut up about her, which likely means that she'd be the greatest thing for republicans ever. Consider using double reverse psychology on us in future.

I must note that some of the Althouse Hillbillies post over and over stuff like "Obama is shuckin' and jivin'" and he is going to serve "fried chicken, greens, chitlins, and watermelon."

Actually, somebody said they were going to have “fried chicken, greens, chitlins, and watermelon” to celebrate being a hillbilly, it had nothing to do with Obama. And with the exception of chitlins, that sounds like a pretty damn good meal.

It's her farewell speech as governor, why wouldn't she write it? And can you imagine a professional speechwriter coming up with those lines? If she had any pros looking over her shoulder, those are the first words that would've been taken out.

Finally, I've always found a disconnect between my observations of Palin and the Palin is Stoopid meme. Lots of inexperienced but highly intelligent people stumble badly in network interviews. Lots of smart people ramble and fall in love with the sound of their own voice. She is a little too high on life right now. But I think her career thus far is testament to a strong intelligence -- more of an instinctual quality than something from school. I think she could stand to be more educated. But dumb? No way.

"Once again, Palin looked like a complete fool. An utter moron. Gawd, the lunacy of those lame-brained enough to promote her."

How?

Her speech? (Since they took down the "poem" I listened to the speech. I'm guessing it was the Denali part at the beginning?)

There was nothing remarkable about the speech at all. It was pretty standard and nothing but mere nit-picks to improve it. It wasn't hard to follow and she said standard things with standard phrases and spoke to her audience. Fairbanks has rather large military installations so the military call-outs can be expected.

The Denali and all was aimed, and aimed *well*, at her audience.

I honestly do not understand the prejudice and hatred that overwhelms objectivity this far.

The only people who look like fools and morons are those who simply can not separate differences in political outlook and opinion from someone's performance while giving a speech.

The speech, what she said, the delivery, all of it was as well done as any political speech ever is.

It seems to me that if Conan wished to pick up some of Letterman's audience, he could have staked out a position of neutrality or even mild support for the Palin phenomenon. No so. This just goes to show that for liberals ideology trumps self interest, and there is no such thing as pragmatism.

Completely OT, so I'll make it quick: @Synova : Have you read "Best Care Anywhere" by Phillip Longman? I have not and I know nothing about it. I also have no direct or personal experience with the VA. I'm asking purely for info purposes, for perspective on whether to buy this book. Thanks.

If a news org likes a subject, they'll clean up the quotes. If not, not. Here's a surprisingly candid NPR piece on this, Pulling Back the Curtain.

Comparing the transcripts of the speech at HuffPo and elsewhere -- this seems to be the one that's going around -- with the clean one at Townhall, makes the strategy transparent. But how many will bother? If the newspaper says it was rambling and Conan says it was incoherent, that's enough to make up a lot of minds right there. Another false accusation, as described by Bill Whittle.

The trouble with genius (Gould) is that not too many people understand them.

John: "Glen Gould was brilliant but insane."

They say that the dividing line is indistinct.

Gould was Bach through and through. I heard a recording of his piano transcription of Beethoven's 6th. Awful.

But his Bach - awe-inspiring.

Speaking of the Goldberg variations, there's a record out there where they recreated his playing from an audio recording (the tape masters), then ran it through a keyboard-playing machine, so you get honest-to-God Gould, without the humming.